ville des terres
Completion: July, 2017
Site: ActLab at Île-Saint-Denis, France
Context: Group Volunteering Project
Organiser: Bellastock
Collaborators: CRAterre, Amàco, Europe Créative Culture, DRAC Ile de France
For more information on this project visit Bellastock , Amàco , Makery
To build an ephemeral city out of raw clay in less than 48 hours with 500 pairs of hands. And to disassemble it the morning of the third day, so leaving no trace of human intervention on the environment. This the challenge that Bellastock poses in 2017 on the question of construction in raw earth, in response to the 50 million tonnes of excavated earth produced by the architectural works of Grand Paris, the metropolis covering the City of Paris and its nearest surrounding suburb. From July 13 to 16, 2017, participants design, build and inhabit La Ville des Terres, literally "City of Earth", an ephemeral city in raw earth on the site of ActLab, the Bellastock reuse manifesto workshop located in the eco-fluvial district of Île-Saint-Denis.
Firstly, the event is an opportunity for festival-goers to confront the raw material and its different means of implementation, ranging from cob; rammed earth; adobe; C.E.B. (Compressed Earth Block), with their different layouts; and earth plasters. In this context, Bellastock and CRATerre become partners and assemble an unprecedented mobile factory for the manufacture of raw earth materials, producing 30,000 C.E.B.s, initially at the disposal of the creation of the ephemeral habitats, in a second time used in other real projects, downstream of the event. Secondly, this meeting brings together students and professionals and becomes conducive to the sharing of knowledge, integrating into the international research on construction techniques with earth. Exploration into the material, economic and environmental properties of earth opens up possibilities for the creation of new sectors within the architectural profession. The organization of the festival at ActLab, is an opportunity for future place-makers and users of the Île-Saint-Denis to prefigure the territory of the future eco-district. La Ville des Terres becomes a collaborative site with demonstration potential for its future inhabitants, on July 15 opening its doors to the general public to allow all the curious to come and discover with possibility to join educational workshops offered by professionals, but also to approach the earth in a more artistic way thanks to the intervention of craftsmen and visual artists.
The city
Urban plan of the second day of the ephemeral city 'Ville des Terres'.
The city takes shape after one day of collective work.
earth construction techniques
Compressed Earth Block.
Rammed earth.
Cob.
Cob render.
C.E.B. foundations.
Load bearing timber frames rendered with cob.
Cob renders with openings and roofs coming together at the end of the first day.
deTails
Brick layouts create decorative elements which provide aesthetic quality and ventilation.
Brick layouts create decorative elements which provide aesthetic quality and ventilation.
public space
On the second day public spaces come together across the shelters, ranging from playgrounds, mud baths and stepped alleys.
deconstruction
The last day a very early and loud wakeup call encourages the participants to dismantle the structures and clear the site within few hours.
Memory
Credits: Enlarge your Paris, edited version. Paris, 2017.